Apparatus for dispensing beer



June 12, 1956 s. T. WHITNALL APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING BEER Filed 12. 1952 IT I INVENTOR. jUM/VEE T WH/T/VHLL BY M, M; 4 4 4 United States Patent APPARATUS FOR DISPENSING BEER Sumner T. Whitnall, Whitefish Bay, Wis.

Application November 12, 1952, Serial'N0..319,942

1 Claim. (Cl. 137-212) This. invention relates to a method and apparatus for dispensing beer.

The invention provides a solution .to the problems of dispensing from a number of barrels or other containers sequentially and facilitating replacement or interchange of empty or partially filled containers. The desired results are achieved by a tapping rod assembly which is applied to each of the several containers, each, such assembly having dispensing and pressure and transfer connections, the latter connection leading through the upper portion of the rod, but opening through a side portion thereof. above the level of the beer in the container to which beer is being transferred from a preceding container. By delivering the transferred beer (or gas, from empty barrels) at or above the level of the beer in the receivingcontainer, I avoid turbulence, this being an important factor which makes the device of this invention. a success where other attempts to solve these problems have failed.

As the transferred beer is applied at or above the level of the beer in the receiving container, under pressure of gas applied to another container in the series, the beer in the receiving container is expelled through the rod from the bottom of the receiving container in substantially the same way as if the pressure had been applied directly to the surface of the beer in the container from which the beer is dispensed to the faucet.

In the drawings:

Fig. l is a diagrammatic view partially in side elevation and partially in section showing a typical installation.

Fig. 2 is a greatly enlarged detail view taken in section through my improved tapping rod assembly and through a barrel or other container to which such assembly is applied, the latter being broken away.

Referring to Fig. 1, I have shown three containers A, B and C connected together in series through the use of embodiments of my invention. As illustrated, container A has been completely emptied, container B is partially empty and container C is filled.

In the usual practice, the dispensing hose 1 is interchangeably connected with but one barrel from which beer is to be dispensed through the faucet 2 at the back of bar 3. Aside from the fact that no cooler has been illustrated, the bar installation is conventional. Where but a single barrel is connected to the faucet at any one time, it is also conventional to use the hose 4 to connect such barrel with a pressure line 5 which leads from a supply of carbon dioxide under pressure.

Attempts have previously been made to connect a number of barrels in sequence, but the particular connection and method of dispensing presently to be described is new. Each barrel or other container in the series is supplied with a special tapping rod, one embodiment of which is shown in Fig. 2 applied to the barrel C. The tap bushing 6 seats upon gasket 7 on the top of tap fitting 8, being anchored thereto by the tap coupling 9 having the usual bayonet joint connection with the tap fitting and being drawn tight. in the usual way by the nut 10, flange 11 of which is confined between the bushing 6 andsleeve 12.

The rod 15 extends centrally through the bushing and tap fitting 8, being adjustable axially therethrough and locked in adjustment by the packing plug 16 which seats against gasket 17 to compress the latter under pressure against the rod. There isclearancei between the rod and sleeve 12 at 18 and between the. rod and the bushing at 19 to permit gas under pressure to pass downwardly about the rod and into the container C. Sleeve 12' has a branch connection at 20 .to receive the gas underpressure. A coupling 21 screws. into the end of the branch andis adapted to receive connection with the pressure hose 4. At the delivery end of the coupling, the coupling is provided with a rubber check valve 22 of the well known type which comprises aflattened flexible walled tube, the sides of, which are forced together by back pressure but readily separate when the pressure within the tube exceeds the back pressure to which it is subject.

At the upper end of the rod 15, beyond the packing band, there is an elbow 23 leading through a valve casing 24 past the shutoff cock 25 to the coupling 26 which connects the dispensing hose 1.with the rod, subject to control by cock 25. The device thus. far described is complete for the dispensing of beer from a single barrel in conventional manner.

However, for the. purposes of the present invention, the elbow 23 is provided with a threaded opening to receive a plug 28 closely fitted to the upper end of a tube 30 which. leads. downwardly through the rod and outwardly at 31v through a side wall:- portion of the. rod which, it is important to note, must desirably be at or immediately above the level 32 of beer in the container to which the device is applied. At its lower end, the tube 30 is connected by solder or otherwise in the manner shown at 33 to the side wall of the rod about the opening therein to provide a liquid-tight connection. The tube does not interfere in any way with the dispensing of beer through the rod from the screening slots 34 or other openings in the lower end thereof closely adjacent the bottom of the container.

The upper end of tube 30 is desirably expanded at 35 over the top of plug 28 and engaged under pressure by valve sleeve 36, the latter being screwed to the plug and communicating through tube 30 with the top of the barrel C. An elbowed coupling member 37 is screwed into the valve casing sleeve 36 and supports check valve 38, which is similar to that already described. Transfer hose 39 has a coupling 40 connected with member 37.

Where a series of barrels or other containers is connected in accordance with the present invention, the transfer hose 39 is used to connect the dispensing valve casing 24 of the special tap rod assembly of each barrel with the coupling fitting 37 of the special tapping rod assembly of the next successive barrel in this series. Only the last barrel of the series is connected with the dispensing hose 1 which leads, usually through the cooler (not shown), to the faucet 2. The pressure supply couplings 21 of the last and intermediate barrels of the series are left unconnected, only the pressure supply coupling cf the special tapping rod assembly of the first barrel of the series being supplied with pressure by connection of the pressure hose 4 from the pressure supply line 5. Due to the fact that my special assembly includes check valves for coupling 37 as well as coupling 21, the pressure hose 4 may be connected with either coupling.

When the device is connected as shown and above described, the pressure supplied from line 5 (usually carbon dioxide gas) gradually expels all of the beer from the first barrel, as shown at A, here shown empty. The beer thus expelled has passed upwardly through the rod 15 from the bottom of barrel A and through the transfer hose 39 controlled by cock 25 to the special coupling 37 above the rod in the tap assembly of the second barrel B. Arriving in the second barrel, the beer from barrel A flows smoothly and without turbulence through the lateral opening 31 onto the top surface of the beer in barrel B, displacing through rod 15 of barrel B all of the beer originally in such barrel. This is accomplished without any turbulence due to the form and location of the port 31 from which the transferred beer is delivered into barrel B. There is always clearance in the top of the barrel and the transferred beer arrives above liquid level.

There is little or any commingling of the beer from barrel A with that of barrel B. Only when all of the beer originally in barrel B has been transferred through hose 39 into barrel C in like manner to that above described, does any gas reach barrel B from barrel A. After barrel A is empty and gas flows through the transfer hose 39 to barrel B, the beer originally in barrel A begins to be dispensed from barrel B, thus efiecting a reduction of liquid level therein as shown in Fig. 1.

Obviously, all of the transfers above described result from the dispensing of the beer through faucet 2 from barrel C. At the stage illustrated in Fig. 1, all of the beer originally in barrel C has been dispensed and to the extent that the level has fallen in barrel B, a part of the beer originally in barrel B has been dispensed. All of this transfer has taken place without turbulence in any of the barrels and without appreciably greater agitation of the beer than is involved in dispensing from a single barrel. In fact, it is believed that there is very little commingling of the beer of the several barrels, as the liquid tends to stratify and to retain its identity because of the fact that the liquid transferred flows smoothly in a lateral direction substantially exactly at the level of the beer in the receiving barrel. The system carefully avoids delivery of either gas or beer at the bottom of a barrel to bubble upwardly through the liquid already present therein.

The fact that each of the couplings for pressure and for transfer is valve-controlled makes it a simple matter for the brewery driver to interchange barrels and to connect newly delivered barrels as desired. In practice, he will connect a newly delivered full barrel beyond the partially emptied barrel B, so that the latter will replace barrel A in the series illustrated to be directly connected to the pressure line.

I claim:

A device of the character described comprising the combination with a bushing and an elbowed sleeve in threaded connection therewith, of a tap coupling nut having a flange rotatably confined between the bushing and sleeve, a tap coupling threadedly engaged by said nut, a hose coupling equipped with a check valve and mounted in the elbow of said sleeve, a packing gland at the upper end of said sleeve, a tapping rod extending through the packing gland with clearance between it and the sleeve and between it and the bushing and provided with an inlet at its lower end, an elbowed valve-controlled beer discharge outlet at the upper end of the tapping rod, a tube extending through the elbow and downward through the tapping rod and provided with a lateral outlet through the side of the tapping rod, and a check valve controlled inlet coupling connected with said tube.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 732,122 Schneider June 30, 1903 2,043,856 Knapp June 9, 1936 2,160,501 Hedges May 30, 1939 2,186,723 Harr et al Jan. 9, 1940 

